The National Bureau of Investigation has found that the killing of 13 people at a joint police-military checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon province, on Jan. 6 was a “conspiracy,” and decided to bring criminal charges against the policemen and soldiers involved.
President Aquino sees no reason to doubt Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, the administration’s anticrime czar whose name has been dragged into the police killing of 13 alleged criminals in Atimonan, Quezon, on Jan. 6.
PNP Director General Alan Purisima reminded policemen of these basic tenets as the 148,000-strong force prepared to mark its 22nd anniversary on Sunday, under a new brand: “Serbisyong Makatotohanan (Genuine Service).”
Sacked Chief Superintendent James Melad, the former director of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regions, admitted he gave the go-signal to put up the checkpoint in Atimonan, Quezon, on January 6 where 13 people were killed.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has ordered the stricter implementation of its policy prohibiting policemen on active duty from moonlighting as security escorts for private individuals in the wake of the Atimonan, Quezon, shooting.
Sacked Calabarzon Police Regional Director James Melad insisted on Wednesday that the Atimonan, Quezon operation that led to the deaths of 13 people, had the blessings of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.
The investigation of the killing of 13 people in a supposed gun battle between government security forces and alleged criminals in Atimonan, Quezon province, on Jan. 6 has become test of President Aquino’s good government policy, Malacañang acknowledged on Wednesday.
Chief Superintendent James Melad, the regional director of the Calabarzon police, accepted on Wednesday the decision of Malacañang to relieve him from his post in the wake of the controversies surrounding the police operations in Atimonan, Quezon and in San Juan, Batangas that led to the deaths of a total of 14 people linked to crimes.
Activist priest, Fr. Robert Reyes, urged the media on Monday, to keep up the coverage of the killing of 13 people in a supposed shootout in Atimonan, Quezon province, last Jan. 6 to prevent any whitewash that had once thwarted justice in the infamous “Kuratong Baleleng” gang rubout in 1995.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) would still be investigated in connection with the Jan. 6 shooting in Atimonan, Quezon, that left 13 dead, even if the body has denied ever approving the police operation against alleged jueteng operator Victor Siman, one of the fatalities in the alleged shootout, Malacañang said on Sunday.
